This invention relates to display racks for supporting and displaying a plurality of products. More particularly, this invention relates to a shelf assembly adapted to be used in a display rack for organizing and merchandising a plurality of products.
Merchants commonly display their products in shelved structures. In order to provide product at the front of the shelves, the shelves are commonly sloped downwardly so that gravity forces the product to the forward edge of the shelves where it is easily accessible to consumers. The angle of the shelf determines the amount of force gravity will have on the product so that the product moves forward.
Such inclined shelves are commonly divided into a plurality of tracks or channels parallel to the side edges of the shelves with dividers so that the product is displayed in orderly columns extending from back to front of the shelf. The tracks or channels are defined by the bottom of the shelf and a plurality of dividers extending upwardly from the shelf bottom. The dividers may be integrally formed with the shelf or separately formed and movable along the shelf bottom. Additionally, the dividers may be integrally formed in a shelf insert, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,288 issued to the assignee of the present application. Arranging the products in columns enables the merchant to display different products in different columns without multiple products being located in the same track or column.
Plastic inserts such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,288 may be placed on a planar shelf in order to provide the shelf with means to divide the product into different columns for display purposes. These plastic inserts are typically of unitary construction and are commonly made of extruded or molded plastic. Dividers are an integral part of the insert and divide the insert into a plurality of tracks, a pair of dividers and the bottom of the insert defining a track. A plurality of stops or bumpers found at the front of the shelf insert are fixed to pairs of dividers at the front of the dividers in order to prevent product from falling off the front edge of the shelf. Once the forwardmost bottle is removed from the track, the remaining bottles within the track slide forwardly until the frontmost bottle contacts the bumper stop.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,838 discloses a shelf insert having a front wall shaped so as to form a plurality of inverted arches defining a plurality of openings therebetween. The front wall acts as a bumper stop for holding and retaining products positioned within the tracks or channels formed by the dividers and bottom of the shelf insert. The front wall prevents product from falling off the front of the shelf. A stop member may be inserted into slots cut in the upper portions of the front wall in order to further prevent product from passing through the openings in the front wall of the insert.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,176 discloses a one-piece elongate channel of unitary construction formed in a single plastic molding operation. A plurality of such elongate channels may be connected to each other and secured to a shelf in order to create a plurality of tracks extending front to back on the shelf, each track being defined by a pair of upstanding sidewalls and a bottom member. At the front of the sidewalls, a front member spaced above the bottom of the track connects the sidewalls and acts as a bumper stop preventing the forwardmost product in a column of products from falling off the shelf. This front member is sufficiently narrow in construction so as to define with the sidewalls and bottom of the track a generally rectangular aperture through which a substantial portion of the front or lead article in the channel may be viewed by a potential customer. Although this patent does disclose an aperture through which a consumer may view a portion of the forwardmost product in a track, the customer may not always see the label due to rotation of the products as they move down the track. In addition, the customer must lift the forwardmost product in the column over the bumper stop or pivot the forwardmost product over the top of the bumper stop while pushing all of the other products in the column rearwardly in order to remove the forwardmost product.
Gravity feed shelves may be used in refrigerated units such as coolers and non-refrigerated display racks. Typically, non-refrigerated display racks display larger bottles of product, such as two liter bottles, and are located along the sides of aisles in stores. Coolers or refrigerated units typically display smaller bottles of product, such as twenty-ounce bottles and are located near the checkout counter or register of a grocery or convenience store.
In both non-refrigerated and refrigerated display racks, a finite amount of vertical space is available for shelving. The more shelves can be placed within this finite area, the better from a merchant""s standpoint because the merchant can display more product. In addition, the more shelves within the area, the less frequently the merchant needs to restock the display rack. Therefore, merchants desire display racks having the maximum possible number of shelves which are able to fit within a defined area.
Until the present invention, adjacent shelves generally were spaced vertically apart from one another by a distance equivalent to or greater than the height of the product being displayed plus the distance between the bottom of the shelf and the bumper stop, because when a consumer wanted to remove the forwardmost product located within a track on the shelf, he or she generally would lift the forwardmost product up over a bumper stop at the front of the track. Therefore, adjacent shelves generally were separated vertically from one another a sufficient distance so as to enable customers to remove the forwardmost products within the tracks by lifting the product vertically. The area between adjacent shelves required for customers to remove product is wasted space because it does not hold or store product. Thus, any type of shelf or shelf insert with immobile fixed bumper stops generally required a vertical spacing between shelves of at least the height of the product being displayed plus the height between the bottom of the shelf and the bumper stop at the front of each track. Such self spacing is undesirable because it decreases the packout or volume of product being displayed within a confined area.
Another difficulty with shelves or shelf inserts having fixed bumper stops is that as product slides down the shelf in the tracks, the product may twist about a vertical axis, inherently causing the labels on the bottles to turn. Therefore, once the forwardmost product contacts the bumper stop, the label of the forwardmost product is facing sideways or rearwards rather than forwardly. Consequently, the consumer has to twist the forwardmost product in a track in order to read its label in order to determine whether the product is the particular product the consumer wants.
In addition, product located on the upper shelves of a shelved structure such as, for example, a non-refrigerated display rack is difficult for some customers to remove because in order to remove the forwardmost product within a track, the product generally was lifted vertically over the fixed bumper stop located at the front of the track. Product located on the uppermost shelf of a display rack was difficult for a consumer whose reach is equal to or less than the height of the uppermost shelf of the display rack. Therefore, the height of a display rack in which merchants may display their products was limited to approximately the height of the reach of the consumers.
The present invention increases the height at which uppermost shelves of a display rack which contain product may be located because customers no longer must lift the product vertically above a fixed stop located at the front of the tracks of the shelf. The uppermost shelf of a display rack may be placed higher than heretofore possible because customers may pull product forwardly about a lower pivot axis rather than lifting product vertically up over a bumper stop.
It has therefore been one objective of the present invention to provide a shelf assembly divided into a plurality of tracks, each track having a pivotal front member.
It has been a further objective of the present invention to provide a shelf assembly which has a plurality of pivotal front members enabling product to be more easily removed by pulling product forwardly rather than lifting product upwardly or pulling the top of a product over the top of a fixed bumper stop.
It has been a further objective of the present invention to provide a shelf assembly which reduces the vertical distance between adjacent shelves necessary to remove products from intermediate shelves.
It has been a further objective of the present invention to provide a shelf assembly having a pivotal front member at the front of a track which is adapted to display different product identifying elements.
The invention of this application which accomplishes these objectives comprises a display rack to which are attached a plurality of shelf assemblies. Each shelf assembly functions to organize and merchandise a plurality of products arranged in columns extending from front to back of the shelf. The shelf assembly comprises a shelf having a bottom, a plurality of dividers and at least one front member movable relative to the dividers.
The dividers are spaced apart from one another and extend from front to back of the shelf so that a pair of the dividers and the bottom of the shelf define a track which supports a plurality of products arranged in a column. The forwardmost product within the column abuts against the front member. The front member prevents the products within the track from falling off the front of the shelf. The front member is pivotal about a horizontal axis so that a forwardmost product within a track may be removed by pulling the forwardmost product forwardly rather than lifting the forwardmost product over a fixed non-pivotal bumper stop as has been necessary before the present invention.
The dividers may be generally planar dividers or any other form of divider. The dividers extend from front to back on the shelf and may be movable relative to the shelf bottom or fixedly secured to the shelf bottom. Alternatively, the dividers may be part of a unitary one-piece shelf insert, such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,288.
If planar dividers are utilized in accordance with the present invention, each divider may have one or more holes which pass through the divider at the front of the divider. The holes are sized so as to receive a portion of one of the pivotal front members so the front member may pivot relative to the dividers. Alternatively, the dividers may have one or more receptacles integrally formed in the dividers. These receptacles are sized so as to receive a portion of one of the front members. When the front member is engaged with the receptacles formed in the dividers, the front member may pivot about a horizontal axis so that a consumer may remove a forwardmost product from a track by pulling the forwardmost product forwardly. In this embodiment, projections extending outwardly from the front member define the horizontal axis about which the front member pivots.
The front member is generally arcuate and is adapted to receive a beverage container, such as a bottle or can. Additionally, the front member is adapted to receive and display different product identifying elements. The front member may be one ply of plastic, or alternatively, two plies of plastic between which a product identifying element may be inserted in order to identify product within the track behind the pivotal front member.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the shelf assembly is divided into a plurality of tracks, each track having a fixed stop which acts as a bumper at the front of the track. The stop is fixedly secured to a pair of adjacent dividers. In this embodiment, the front member is pivotally secured to the stop rather than being pivotally secured to the dividers. Consequently, the front member pivots with respect to the fixed stop. The stop itself does not pivot relative to the dividers. Rather, the front member pivots about an axis defined by portions of the stop. In this embodiment, the forwardmost product within a track may still be removed by pulling rather than lifting the forwardmost product within the track. However, the forwardmost product must slide over the stop fixedly secured to the dividers at the front of the track. The stop may be a wire, a piece of plastic or any other structure about which the front member may pivot. The front member may be engaged with the stop any number of ways. One type of front member has a pair of openings therethrough which are adapted to receive the stop, enabling the front member to pivot about the stop. This embodiment is most often used with a wire grid structure, although is not necessarily so limited.
With either embodiment, the forwardmost product of a column of products may be removed from a track by pulling on the top of the product (i.e., the neck of a bottle) to pivot the forwardmost product about a pivot axis lower than the top of the bumper stop rather than lifting the product or pivoting the product over the top of a fixed bumper stop located at the front of the track. Thus with the present invention, adjacent shelves may be placed closer together than has heretofore been possible, increasing the packout or number of shelves which may be used within a limited space. Consequently, the present invention enables a merchant to store and display more product in a limited area. In addition, the pivotal front members located at the front of the shelf of the present invention enable customers to easily remove product and to easily identify products within the different tracks of the shelf. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following description of the drawings.